Every few years there’s a spate of articles describing Aleksandr Dugin as a Rasputin like figure, and columnists breathlessly cite his “Foundations of Geopolitics” as the book all Russian strategists must read.
It’s based in part on the work of Friedrich Ratzel who coined the terms Lebensenergie, Raumsinn and Lebensraum.
“Органический" подход Ратцеля сказывается и в отношении к самому пространству (Raum). Это “простран ство” переходит из количественной материальной категории в новое качество, становясь "жизненной сферой ", "жизненным пространством " (Lebensraum), некоей "геобиосредой ". Отсюда вытекают два других важных термина Ратцеля "пространственный смысл " (Raumsinn) и "жизненная энергия " (Lebensenergie). Эти термины близки друг к другу и обозначают некое особое качество, присущее географическим системам и предопределяющее их политическое оформление в истории народов и государств. ”
Ratzel’s “organic” approach is in relation to its space (Raum). This “space” brings over a cardinal material category in a new quality, becoming the “Living Sphere,” “Living Space” (Lebensraum), in a “Geobioylogical Environment.” From this concept arises two different, important terms of Ratzel’s: “Sense of Space” (Raumsinn) and “Living Energy (Lebensenergie). These terms are closely related to each other and denote some special quality, inherent in geographical systems and predetermining political figuration in the history of the people and state.
So, if you believe that Dugin is important enough that his advice is taken seriously by the Kremlin, it’s a horrible sign. If he’s just a fringe figure, and there’s no chance of Russia concluding an alliance with AfD and “expanding into French Novorossiya” (Marine Le Pen’s base of support), then it’s a load of bilge that’s not worth worrying about.
Tucker: It may be worth asking yourself… why do I hate Putin… Has Putin ever called me a racist? Has he threatened to get me fired for disagreeing with him?
As ever, it is all “me”, “me”, “me”; no care about other people.
Yeah, I think that is what she meant, that it literally just means living space, but that those words do not have the same nationalistic weight in Russian that Lebensraum has (she speaks German too and is aware of that). So maybe it has not been as widely adopted?
So I don’t know if it is just not as broadly used in that way or what. Like while the American equivalent of Lebensraum might be Manifest Destiny, in Russian there is no direct equivalent.
She feels like the Russian equivalent would be more about “what is historically Russian, including what belonged to the Soviet Union”, which is different than Lebensraum
I would be really interested in hearing from a native Russian speaker about this
But it’s so weird that I can’t even believe Carlson believes his illogic. And he wont shut up about it. This isnt a one-off. Carlson is Putin’s Lord Haw-Haw.
Even if you didnt know the actual issues he’s bringing up, he’s using domestic issues as a wedge to approve of a foreign dictator’s invasion of democratic country…
It’s whataboutism taken to the Nth degree…
“Did he ship all my jobs to Russia?”
“Did he manufacture a world-wide pandemic?”
So any grievances that apply to China-- obsess over them to exclusion of anything else? (Including a Stalin-style dictator gobbling up anything he can)
Oh, and: let’s stoke unsupported pandemic/plandemic conspiracy theories while we’re at it!! Why not play all the Greatest Hits, Tucker? "Putin didnt impose vaccine/mask mandates on me!"
Wow. Big picture, this is what Republican pro-Hitler propaganda looked/sounded like in 1940. It’s chilling how brainwashed this is.
I. just. don’t. get. it. If anything, you’d think GQP would be indifferent to Putin.
During late-1930s Nazi Germany at least, the US had large commercial interests that would make Republicans value profit over morality and be pro-neutrality (which was effectively pro-German). But, with Russia, is the US that involved business-wise (perhaps with petroleum companies, I guess)?
But this fulsome endorsement of everything Putin does… The GQP are pod people for Russia… and they are getting almost nothing back in return(?)
I’m only surprised Carlson doesnt endorse the novachuk poisonings, saying its victims “deserved” to be poisoned.
Also, Tucker is “pwning the libs” by being pro-Russian(!)
Will it, though? In the 1950s, Republicans pretended to have been anti-Nazi all along, and to add insult to injury, ret-conned people who were anti-Franco/anti-Hitler in the late '30s/early '40s as “premature anti-fascists”.
Indeed-- if anything, Putin’s conception is more expansive than lebensraum. When you call it lebensraum, you are (at least) acknowledging that you are taking what is not yours! Here, Putin is essentially pushing that Russia is taking what is Russia’s.
Historically, Bohemia has always been a part of Germany. We’re just protecting the Germans at risk of genocide from those horrible Czechs in the Sudetenland.
There’s also the pro-active projection going on: being that Ukrainians died in the millions to the '30s-era Soviet Russia-imposed famine/genocide. Best to get their accusations in first before Ukraine ever brings it up (which they havent, because Ukraine seemingly isnt even engaging on the PR/propaganda front).
Unfortunately the American right recognises that Putin’s Russia is not socialist, and is nationalist, morally conservative (and homophobic in particular) and a bastion of “Christian values” and “Western civilisation”.
Putin’s Russia is a lot more socialist than the US though. It’s not egalitarian or democratic, but there’s (at least in theory / by law) a strong safety net and worker protections. It’s not arab oil state level socialism, but he knows his people compare their lot to Europe, not the US, and has to buy popular support accordingly.
Vladmir Putin also did not: compete on Dancing With the Stars; guest host an episode of Jeopardy; eat a giant bowl of spaghetti and dicks live on television; build a rocket and fly it to the moon; reverse the world’s orbit so that time flowed backward; win back to back Olympic Luge competitions; invent time travel so he could go back and kill baby Hitler; develop working desktop fusion to power any home for an infinite length of time and produce clean water.
So, I guess that makes him all right as long as you ignore what he HAS done: jailing his political opponents; squashing the free press; running corrupt elections; ordering the murder of dissidents; coordinating and supporting the Red Army Faction terrorist network while he was with the KGB; illegally invading other countries and undermining sovereign nations; etc, etc. Sure, he’s a SWELL guy because he didn’t call Fucker Carlson a racist. Well, not to his face at least, but I suspect he laughs at him behind closed doors. “What an idiot. He’s repeating everything we put out there.”
Man, this tweaking racist pile of rancid playdough really has to bend over backward to make his case.
Trivial semantic point but the Ukranians are sensitive to this, so perhaps we should respect it…
The country is called Ukraine.
Referring to it as ‘The Ukraine’ apparently depicts it as less a country and more just a region - which serves Putin’s purposes very well. The Ukranians want to live in a country, not a region of somewhere.
